Families pull hard in recruiting tug of wars

Sporting News, The, March 20, 1995 by Ivan Maisel

The recruiting saga of Fred Jones should be printed in a medical casebook to explain how coaches get ulcers. The story will be told as long as coaches gather in hotel pubs in January.

Jones is a defensive lineman at St. Augustine High in San Diego, ranked by one and all as one of the top prospects in prospect-rich California. Former Colorado coach Bill McCartney built the Buffaloes into a national power by mining California the way Oklahoma traditionally plundered Texas. For example, the reigning Heisman Trophy winner, tailback Rashaan Salaam, grew up in San Diego. Darian Hagan and Eric Bieniemy, the offensive threats of the 1990 national championship team, came from the Los Angeles area. And so on.

Rick Neuheisel, McCartney's replacement won the job in part because of his ties to southern California. He played at UCLA won the Rose Bowl MVP at UCLA and coached at UCLA Neuheisel, as you might suspect targeted California this winter. Of 21 future Buffaloes, 10 came from the Golden State, including such hyped stars as cornerback J'Juan (pronounced Jah-Wan) Cherry of Berkeley High and defensive linemen Clyde Sanders of Sacramento Grant High and David Gates of San Diego Samuel Morse High.

But the list doesn't include Jones. He wants to come to Colorado. Colorado wants him to enroll. But his mother will not sign his letter-of-intent. She wants him to play at Illinois.

Oh, were it only that simple. Flash back to mid-January. Fred and his Mom made a recruiting visit to Colorado. Mom loved it, loved it so much that she couldn't wait for Fred to enroll. When assistant coach Brian Cabral hosted a party for departing defensive coordinator Mike Hankwitz (he left for Kansas), Cabral's wife used recipes she had been given by Jones' mother.

Then Fred and Mom went to Illinois. They have family in Chicago, and Mom enjoyed herself so much, she decided she wanted Fred to play for Lou Tepper and the Fighting Illini. She wasn't merely pro-Illinois. Mom turned virulently anti-Colorado. "She does not want us to call," one Colorado athletic official said. "She told the school (St. Augustine) not to take our calls." Jones' mother reportedly changed her phone number and gave the number only to the Illinois coaches.

One problem: Fred wants to go to Colorado. The standoff remains. The letter-of-intent goes unsigned. The deadline to sign it is April 1. All a letter does is bind the recruit to the university and vice-versa. A recruit still may show up on reporting day in August and get his scholarship, if it remains available. But that recruit must be 18 to do so, or his parent or guardian must sign the financial-aid form. Fred won't turn 18 until October. The other option would be for Fred to pay his way the first semester. The out-of-state rate for tuition, room and board goes about $9,000. Scratch that

It's all a big mess -- and it's not all that unusual. Parents aren't always happy with the choices their children make. Some won't let them make them. Glyn Milburn succumbed to his family's wishes against his better judgment and enrolled at Oklahoma. After a year, he transferred to his choice, Stanford, and became an All-American.

Other parents let their children make their own "mistakes." Salaam's mother fervently pushed her son to go to Stanford. He stood his ground and went to Colorado. Mom didn't know best after all.

As the college football world attempts to keep up with the Joneses, especially in Boulder and Champaign, it's hard not to laugh at the ludicrous hoops through which coaches jump to sign players. All it is is their livelihood.

Changing History

The NCAA's cooler heads in Kansas City may have averted a heated controversy. The NCAA decided recently not to credit Amos Alonzo Stagg with an additional 21 victories from his tenure as an "advisory" coach at Susquehanna University. Thus, Paul (Bear) Bryant's standing as No. 1 among major-college coaches at 323 victories remains safe. The Alabama National Guard may return to stand-down status.

The will be no quibbling with the idea that Stagg remains one of the great coaches in history. But there is a limit to his coaching skills. Thirty years after his death, not even Stagg is good enough to win games.

Susquehanna produced evidence that Stagg and his son, Arnos Alonzo Jr., served as co-coaches from 1947 through '52. As such, Stagg would be credited with 335 victories rather than 314. However, evidence from that period in the form of school documents listed Junior as head coach and Dad as an "advisory" coach. Bryant's record is safe.

Bryant, by the way, is about 75 victories behind Eddie Robinson on the overall list. There's a doctoral candidate in Tuscaloosa searching the archives for those victories as we speak.

Prime-time persuasion

One sign of the greater acceptance among head coaches and athletic directors to play on Thursday night is the better quality of games ESPN will have this fall. The highlight games are Mississippi State at Auburn (October 5) and Florida State at Virginia (November 2), both matchups of probable Top 25 teams. Coaches like the exposure for recruiting purposes -- the telecasts are in prime time and unopposed by other games. Imitation being the sincerest form of you know what, coaches won't have exclusivity after this season. Prime Sports probably will go up against ESPN with Big 12 and Pacific 10 games when the cable network begins televising those leagues.